6 Dr. G. Dickie on the Physiology of Fecundation in Plants, 



we have a just value for those who were but her disciples and in- 

 structed by her. Their time and abilities both being short to 

 her ; which, as she was first designed by Divine Wisdom, so 

 may her vast dimensions best be adjudged of in being compared 

 therewith. It will therefore be our prudence not to insist upon 

 the invidious question, which of her scholars have taken the 

 fairest measure of her ; but to be well satisfied, that as yet she 

 hath not been circumscribed by any. Nor doth it more behove 

 us to consider how much of the nature of vegetation may lie be- 

 fore us yet unknown, than to believe a great part thereof to be 

 knowable. Not concluding from the acknowledged, much less 

 supposed unsuccessfulness of any man's undertakings, but from 

 what may be accounted possible as to the nature of things them- 

 selves.*' 



On the Ovule of Nai*thecium ossifragum. 



It is unnecessary to give any minute account of the ovarium 

 in this plant ; suffice it to say, that about the time of impregna- 

 tion, in general form it resembles a Florence flask, the stigma is 

 perforated, a canal traverses the style and appears to communi- 

 cate with each cell of the ovary. Some authors seem to have 

 misunderstood the structure and mode of attachment of the 

 ovules : thus Endlicher, in his ' Genera Plantarum,' says, " Ovula 

 e funiculis longis erecta /' and again, " Semina plurima, longe 

 filiformia, funiculo crassiusculo elongato.'' In Sir W. J. Hooker's 

 ' British Flora,^ the seeds are described as having " a very long 

 arillus forming an appendage to each extremity." The ovules 

 have clearly no attaching cord ; the outer membrane, of a lax cel- 

 lular texture, is very greatly produced beyond the secundine and 

 nucleus ; the point of attachment to the placenta is by the edge 

 of the exostome, from which, in consequence of the excessive de- 

 velopment of the primine, there is a canal of some length leading 

 to the foramen of the secundine and to the nucleus. In only one 

 instance have I seen a distinct funiculus as is represented at 

 fig. 4, Plate I., the usual mode of attachment being that which 

 has now been described and is illustrated by fig. 1. This highly- 

 developed primine has been mistaken for an arillus, from which 

 however it is very difierent — at least if we follow the usual ac- 

 ceptation of the term. 



While engaged in examining the ovules of Narthecium shortly 

 after the bursting of the anthers, I found numerous transparent 

 slender tubes on the surface of the placenta, and on careful ex- 

 amination was able to trace them to the mouths of ovules. I 

 concluded at first that they were pollen-tubes, and proceeded to 

 examine their connexion with the ovules. On dissecting off the 

 primine, which is not a very difficult operation owing to its loose 



